


Eyes on me

by Antares10



Series: Seto Kaiba and his horrible life choices [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Could be seen as Yugi/Jounouchi, Could be seen as a prequel to the dark side of dimensions movie, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Kaiba being jealous, Kaiba doesn't know how to people, Kaiba is kinda messed up, Kaiba needs help, Kaiba no, Kinda?, Nobody should have to deal with this bullshit, Yami and Kaiba are bad at communicating, Yami notices stuff, Yugi and Jounouchi have a nice day, before memory world, but Yami is still a bit better, but no spoiler, kinda sad, manga-verse, somebody send help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 20:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10624851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antares10/pseuds/Antares10
Summary: Kaiba doesn't really know what he wants and he has no clue how to get it. He would be horrified if somebody would have told him that he was jealous of the bond the Other Yugi got with any other person beside him. After all, the only one worth to be looked at is he himself... right?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pandir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandir/gifts).



> For Pandir who is still the best and enables me. :D
> 
> Manga-verse, set somewhere before the memory world arc. Let's just say they had a few days downtime to be simply kids, huh? Could also be seen as a prequel to the movie without spoiler.

Seto Kaiba was not an idiot. Quite the opposite to be honest, he was a genius. Well, in his opinion and really, what _other_ opinion could ever matter? None, that's what.

 

Really, there were a lot of things speaking for him. Physical looks aside, he was one of the youngest AND most powerful business owners in the world. He also was the strongest duelist who ever lived. He had all the most powerful cards, the knowledge to use them properly and last but not least the STRENGTH to wield them like a devastating weapon. He was aware that many people (sheep, all of them) weren't strong enough to handle the kind of power Duel Monster had to offer. Oh, they called it “just a card game”, but he and a few selected people knew better.

 

Duel Monster, like almost any other struggle between two humans, was not about “fun” or friendship or any of these stupid things. It was about power, about the rush of knowing you had your opponent exactly where you want them to be when they thought they were safe from your attacks and the near ecstatic feeling of crushing all their hopes with a single flip of a card.

 

After all, Kaiba did prefer fighting and humiliating his enemies personally one on one.

 

There was another aspect now, though. The Other Yugi.

 

The Other Yugi was strange. He only appeared while dueling and unlike all the gray sheep that flocked around him, he was-- special. In a way. For once, he had beaten him in his own game. He was strong, he knew the game and what it meant to be a duelist, he was one of the few people Kaiba might even admire. He was the rock he wanted to climb, the mountain he wanted to conquer. The light he had started chasing after.

 

And Seto Kaiba didn't CHASE anything.

 

 

Dueling him, however, was a rush. He had a quick and witty mind, his eyes were burning with passion and under his gaze Kaiba felt a kind of pressure that pushed him to greater, bigger heights. It felt simply... amazing. Just dealing blows and moves, hits and recoveries. Mind against mind, cards against cards. Even when losing somehow Kaiba just wanted to continue.

 

Dueling most people in Battle City felt like a chore. It meant enduring this boring duel or that to get his prize. With the Other Yugi, dueling him WAS the price. And he felt the NEED to have it again and again. The problem was that even though the Other Yugi was almost of one mind with him during a duel, he wasn't so much outside of it.

 

Whenever Kaiba looked at the Other Yugi, he noticed more and more that the Other Yugi wasn't looking nearly as often at HIM. And that just wouldn't do. He was Seto Kaiba. The whole world looked at him!

 

But not the Other Yugi. Not always anyway. When they duelled he was always looking at him, staring at him with an intensity that left Kaiba with cold shivers. But outside of a duel? He would easily be distracted by others. By the street rat, the girl, the strange boy, the other boy, other people, even the “normal” (read boring) Yugi himself. All people he usually dismissed. And he didn't understand why. Why did the Other Yugi care so much for them?

 

So he wanted to understand. Why the Other Yugi wasn't just looking at him, because clearly he was the only one worthy of his attention.

 

He watched them. Yugi and his friends. A strange gaggle of people, all nothing special according to Kaiba's background checks. The Girl, Anzu, wanted to be a dancer, jobbing illegally already to pay the tickets for her dream. Honda wasn't really anything special, not even a duelist with a tendency to fall in love with some unattainable woman. Bakura, half-orphan and nerd, but most likely a thief of a lot of questionable things. And finally, the biggest distraction maybe: Jounouchi.

 

Really, Yugi went on and on and on about him (“ _I love you, Jounouchi.”_ ), he CARED so much and was so INVESTED in him, even the Other Yugi’s eyes were on him a lot. Kaiba watched Yugi and Jounouchi laugh and joke with each other. The touched each other a lot too, he noticed. Hugs and pats on the shoulder and headlocks and tackles, play-wrestling and just leaning against each other. Even the Other Yugi, usually very reserved with physical contact, touched him more than the others, handshakes and high-fives and sometimes an appreciating hand on the shoulder of the other.

 

Kaiba just didn't understand WHY. Jounouchi was nothing special. Just a dumb kid, son of an alcoholic bastard, a trouble maker and former member of one of the many gangs of Domino. Just a thug with some street smarts. Just one of the thousands of thousands of faceless boys running around the city, being mediocre at best at anything they do, neither powerful nor wealthy nor anything at ALL.

 

But still, Yugi and the Other Yugi would look at him when he called, would rush to his help if needed, would lean on him and call for him and TRUST him and simply pay attention to him.

 

And not to Kaiba.

 

And whenever they did so, something hot and cold and ugly began to stir in Kaiba.

 

Because it would be easy. Very easy.

 

He wasn't like one of these sons and daughters who had gotten their company handed to them. He was Seto Kaiba and he had learned all the tricks and cheats of the business world and then some. He had driven people out of their homes and taken their wealth and even lives, he knew how to destroy a human in every possible and messy way.

 

It would be easy and nobody could ever trace it back to him. He could take each and every distraction from Yugi away. He could _make_ him look at him.

 

It would only take one phone call and he could have Jounouchi in jail for any crime of his choice. It would take one phone call to destroy the life of the young man, to take the money he earned in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, to manipulate his sister away from him, to leave him to die cold and alone and stripped from everything and anything...

 

It would take one phone call and Jounouchi would have an “accident” or disappear from the earth without a trace.

 

 

But something deep inside him, told him that he could take nearly everything from Jounouchi, but not Yugi. He hand seen what happened to others who tried the same. Saw the cold indifference of the Other Yugi when he was finished with a foe that dared to harm his friends. And Kaiba wanted Yugi to look AT him, not to look through him to the goal, the friends he wanted to save.

 

The only thing he wanted for himself, the Other Yugi, was the one he could not have just for himself.

 

He didn't like that one bit, a Kaiba didn't share. But he knew that no matter what kind of move he made, he would lose what he was trying to gain. So he waited in the pin the Other Yugi had put him, like a chess figure that was checkmated. Every move would cost him the game.

 

And Yugi, the Other Yugi, was still the King of Games. Long live the King.

 

 

 

 

“Yugi?”

 

“Yes, Jounouchi?”

 

“I think Kaiba is spying on us...”

 

“Oh yeah, he does that.”

 

“What? You knew that?”

 

“Other Me noticed him some time ago... we both have no clue though why he is following us through Domino...”

 

“Eh, who knows, maybe he gets kicks out of following us around.” There was a grin. “Maybe he admires your fashion choice.”

 

Yugi made a small sound of embarrassment at that but laughed together with Jounouchi shortly after. It was a beautiful day, flowers were blooming and birds were singing and it was warm enough for ice cream. Really, who cared that Kaiba was trying to be stealthy in a flashy white coat trailing behind them? Not them, definitely not.

 

They walked together through downtown today, visiting some of the places from Battle City (“And here I got my second key card... it was kinda freaky...” “Jounouchi, all our duels were kinda freaky...”) and in general enjoyed the day. (“So... the Other You wants to check some new cards out?” “He is a bit single-minded sometimes.”)

 

Both of them were still aware of Kaiba trailing them but simply... didn't care. After a while they became caught up in their conversation again, eating ice cream together while sitting on soft, fresh grass in the park. At some point they shifted positions, Jounouchi lying on the ground with his head in Yugi’s lap, and both of them looking up to point out the shapes of the clouds.

 

It was nice and warm and something they really needed after all the strange events of the last few weeks.

 

And unseen by them, the ghostly image of a former Pharaoh was looking over his shoulder. He spotted Kaiba again, and watched him for a while looking at Yugi and Jounouchi. He wasn't a fool, he could see the subtle shifts in Kaiba’s expression. He could see his fingers twitching.

 

In a way, he pitied him. He had seen Kaiba’s soul at his worst, and to be honest, he might have not exactly improved it initially with his first shadow game that made Kaiba experience his own death. He then had shattered the wretched soul when Death-T happened. He had hoped for Kaiba to... put himself together properly. Better.

 

And he WAS better now. But... there were still things that hadn't healed. After all, you didn't fix a crack in a glass by smashing the glass and putting it back together.

 

He felt responsible for him, in a way. Responsibility and pity and some other feelings he couldn't name. He should keep an eye on him, keep taps on him, but...

 

But this was a peaceful day. Beautiful even, and his partner and his best friend were having a good time...

He turned away from Kaiba, towards the two boys who were shining in the sun like the light they were in his life. And Kaiba, in the shadows, remained in his back.

 

“Oh, Other Me?”, asked Yugi, looking up when he noticed Yamis ghostly form coming back. It spoke a lot of their relationship that Jounouchi just tried to smile at his general direction even if he couldn't see him. “Where were you?”

 

“Oh, just... checking on something”, Yami said lightly, returning to Yugi’s soul room, content in the feeling of sunshine and light and happiness that his other half was sharing with him. “Nothing important.”

 

 

 

 

It was night when Yami thought about the day again. About Kaiba. Being a ghost meant he didn't have to sleep and that meant he had a LOT of time to think. Sometimes he kind of missed the days when he was barely there, more like a dark shadow of Yugi than a person for himself.

 

 

But back to Kaiba. He was a little... worried. A bit. He knew something would have to be done but he hesitated.

 

To share a body with somebody else was strange. He would never be able to describe for real what it was like, the feeling of never being alone (the terror he felt when he WAS), the whisper of emotions and memories and things that crossed over between them. He had all of Yugi’s memories and a lot of his emotions related to them. Yugi’s grandfather felt like his own even though they weren't related, for example. And Yugi... well, he did share some of Yami’s memories, knowledge and flashes of little bits and pieces.

 

There was a time when they were more... separated on the memory level. When he would take over Yugi's body to execute his own brand of justice and leave Yugi none-the-wiser. He didn't do this anymore. Yugi had the right to know and veto where his body was going. It was HIS after all, not Yami's.

 

But, he NEEDED to do something and... Yugi shouldn't know. He was asleep anyway.

 

Yami knew he shouldn't but he did anyway, slowly taking over and pushing Yugi’s soul aside as gently as possible. He opened his eyes, blinked a bit before getting out of the bed. He looked at the mirror and then hastily away. He changed quickly, black leather pants, black shirt. He took a jacket and threw it over his shoulder. And off he was.

 

He found Kaiba not far from the house, sitting on a bench in a dark corner of the park. He sat down beside him.

 

 

“You know, if you want to talk to me you can just call.”, he said after some seconds of silence. “I got a phone and know how to use it.”

 

 

Kaiba just huffed but turned to look at him. “Duel me.”, he just said.

 

“No.”

 

“What?”

 

“I won't duel you now, Kaiba. It's late. It's dark. We are both tired.”

 

“Why come out then?”

 

“Why do you follow me and Jounouchi?”

 

There was a beat of silence, both of them staring at each other, trying to figure out what the next move of the other would be. But this wasn't duel monster, this was... something different.

 

“Why do you bother with him?”, asked Kaiba after a while, almost growling.

 

“He is important. To me and my partner.”, said Yami slowly.

 

Kaiba snorted. “Why, I wonder? He is a mediocre duelist at best and even besides that, he is a nothing, trash coming from trash and going to forever be trash.”

 

“Stop insulting him.”, growled Yami back. “He is a fine young man who works hard to hone his skills.”

  
“PLEASE, hone his skills? That guy uses a gambling deck.”

 

“He never resolved to cheating.”

 

Kaiba looked like he was trying to say something but went silent after the comment had sunken in.

 

“Who told you?”

 

“Mokuba. During Death-T.”

 

Kaiba made another small sound and kept looking away.

 

“I don't think you are hopeless, you know?”, said Yami after a while, looking up to the sky. “You are just walking a very dark path, unable to see the good that lies in front of you.”

 

“Oh, spare me your mythical crap.”, huffed Kaiba. “Just say what you have to say.”

 

“Fine then.”, said Yami, looking at Kaiba again, his eyes locking on him, all his attention on him. “You need help, Kaiba. A lot of it. And I am afraid I am not the one who can provide it.”

 

Kaiba stared at him in shock. There was silence between them for a long while until Yami sighed and stood up. “Please get help, Kaiba.”, he said softly. “For your sake, as for others, too.”

 

And he went away, disappearing into the night.

 


End file.
